The First of Many to Arrive in Saudi Were the Entire Shield at First

Air Force and Navy Squadrons Got There Fast and Stayed Until the Job Was Done

Operation Desert Shield began on 7 August 1990 when United States military personnel were sent to Saudi Arabia at the request of King Fahd. From the beginning there was a palpable feel that if Iraq moved on Saudi Arabia the US forces in Saudi would not be able to stop the Iraqis. Slow them down perhaps. Shoot them down, sure; put a hurt on their ground forces, absolutely. But it would take time, and one of the largest mass-movements of American military might ever, before more than a few believed Iraq could be kept out of Saudi Arabia.

F-15s on the ground in Saudi. Image via USAF

The first Air Force combat units to arrive in Saudi for Desert Shield were the 27th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) Fighting Eagles and 71st TFS Ironmen from the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) out of Langley Air Force Base (AFB) in VIrginia. Eventually the 1st TFW deployed 48 aircraft to the Persian Gulf. Beginning that first day in the Saudi desert, the 1st TFW flew some 4,207 sorties over the Saudi borders with Kuwait and Iraq by the time Desert Shield became Desert Storm on 16 January 1991.

Bitburg-based F-15s. Image via USAF

Also flying out of Saudi within days were the 22nd TFS Stingers and the 53rd FS Tigers of the 36th TFW, which had moved to Saudi from Bitburg Air Base in Germany. The 525th TFS Bulldogs flew their F-15s to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as part of the Proven Force Joint Task Force. The Air National Guard (ANG) sent the 157th TFS Swamp Foxes of the 169th TFW South Carolina ANG and the 138th TFS Cobras of the 174th TFW New York ANG to Saudi as well.

VF-143 F-14s. Image via US Navy

The US Navy immediately sent Battle Groups built around the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) with Carrier Air Wing SEVEN (CVW-7) embarked, and the Forrestal-class aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVA-62) with CVW-14 embarked to the Persian Gulf, where they were operationally ready to fly missions against Iraqi forces the next day: 8 August 1991. Also sent to the Persian Gulf were two Missouri-class cruise missile-armed battleships: USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64).

Of course hundreds of thousands would follow. When Shield turned to Storm, the US military performed brilliantly. But if it weren’t for those first jets and ships to show one country’s resolve, the outcome certainly could have been different.

Bill Walton is a life-long aviation enthusiast and expert in aircraft recognition. As a teenager Bill helped his engineer father build an award-winning T-18 homebuilt airplane in their Wisconsin basement. Bill is a freelance writer, an avid sailor, engineer, announcer, husband, father, uncle, mentor, coach, and Navy veteran. Bill lives north of Houston TX with his wife and son under the approach path to KDWH runway 17R, which means they get to look up at a lot of airplanes. A very good thing.